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The filing—the first ever seeking to apply the 13th Amendment to nonhuman
animals—names the five orcas as plaintiffs and also seeks their release to
their natural habitats or seaside sanctuaries.

In the first case of its kind, PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two
former orca trainers are filing a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare
that five wild-caught orcas forced to perform at SeaWorld are being held as
slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
filing—the first ever seeking to apply the 13th Amendment to nonhuman
animals—names the five orcas as plaintiffs and also seeks their release to
their natural habitats or seaside sanctuaries.

The suit is based on the plain text of the 13th Amendment, which
prohibits the condition of slavery without reference to "person" or any
particular class of victim. "Slavery is slavery, and it does not depend on
the species of the slave any more than it depends on gender, race, or
religion," says general counsel to PETA, Jeffrey Kerr.

The five wild-captured orca plaintiffs are Tilikum and Katina (both
confined at SeaWorld Orlando) and Kasatka, Corky, and Ulises (all three
confined at SeaWorld San Diego).

"All five of these orcas were violently seized from the ocean and taken
from their families as babies. They are denied freedom and everything else
that is natural and important to them while kept in small concrete tanks and
reduced to performing stupid tricks," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
"The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery, and these orcas are, by definition,
slaves."

Orcas are intelligent animals who, in the wild, work cooperatively, form
complex relationships, communicate using distinct dialects, and swim up to
100 miles every day. At SeaWorld, they are forced to swim in circles in
small, barren concrete tanks. Deprived of the opportunity to make conscious
choices and to practice their cultural vocal, social, and foraging
traditions, they are compelled to perform meaningless tricks for a reward of
dead fish.

Our understanding of animals grows every day. Animals are no longer
regarded as "things" to dominate, but as breathing, feeling beings with
families, dialects, intellect, and emotions. Just as we look back with shame
at a time when we enslaved other humans and viewed some people as property
less deserving of protection and consideration, we will look back on our
treatment of these animals with shame. The 13th Amendment exists to abolish
slavery in all its forms—and this lawsuit is the next step.

The orcas are represented in the suit by what the law refers to as their
"next friends": PETA, Ric O'Barry (a former orca and dolphin trainer and the
star of the Academy Award–winning documentary The Cove), renowned marine
biologist and orca expert Dr. Ingrid N. Visser, Orca Network founder Howard
Garrett, and former SeaWorld trainers Samantha Berg and Carol Ray.

The groundbreaking suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of California in San Diego.

Please help animals imprisoned by SeaWorld today. Click here to write to
The Blackstone Group—the company that owns SeaWorld—and ask that it
immediately set in place a firm and rapid plan to release the animals to
sanctuaries that can provide them with an appropriate and more natural
environment.

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